Instead Johnny Depp's new cyber sci-fi picture remains dully literal and strictly earthbound, a movie about big ideas that, sadly, has few original ones of its own.

That's a shame because it's the directorial debut of Wally Pfister, the cinematographer who's given Chris Nolan's films their consistently rich, deeply focused look (and who won an Oscar for the dizzyingly layered "Inception").

But a cinematographer is not necessarily a director, let alone a storyteller, and the screenplay for "Transcendence" — another debut effort, this one from writer Jack Paglen — gives Pfister little to work with.

The story features a listless Johnny Depp — trotting out that vaguely posh "Continental" accent he puts on when he wants to sound thoughtful — as a brilliant researcher in artificial-intelligence. One day, he predicts, man and machine may even combine to form some new sort of godly, omniscient creature.

But then cruel fate takes a hand — and it becomes clear to Depp, and wife Rebecca Hall, that the time for mind-melding is now.

What happens next? Oh, you know what happens next — at least if you grew up on old-school sci-fi like "2001" and "Colossus: The Forbin Project." Cyber-Depp gets more powerful, and more arrogant, quickly amassing money, then power, then an army.

It's all pretty predictable, and Pfister and his cast never do anything to confound our assumptions. Depp literally phones in, or rather Skypes in, his performance (most of his dull work is delivered via video screen) and the fine Rebecca Hall is stuck looking endlessly concerned.

Add in Morgan Freeman as his usual Voice Of Wisdom, a gang of cyberterrorists led by the raccoon-eyed Kate Mara and the sort of massive underground lair that would strain credulity in a mid-'60s Bond film, and you have a movie that's really just a cut-and-paste job.

It's a shame because — not surprisingly — Pfister shows a real control of imagery here. He's particularly fond of building suspense through excruciatingly slow pans, and emphasizing the chilliness of technology with white-on-white set design.

But unlike the truly mind-bending "Inception," "Transcendence" never grapples with the concepts it introduces, sticking to an absolute-genius-corrupts-absolutely plot that was old back in the first season of "Star Trek," and ending with a muffled whimper.

It's not that there isn't a lot of talking — a lot — about artificial intelligence here. But real intelligence? That's in sadly short supply.